Sunday, July 22, 2012

As luck would have it I had all the necessary ingredients on hand - red chillies, ginger, garlic, limes, kaffir lime leaves, rice vinegar - so I was good to go.

This is an absolute doddle to make. The garlic, chillies, ginger and kaffir lime leaves are blitzed up in the food processor for a moment or two until you get a coarse paste. The paste is then added to a saucepan with water, sugar, lime zest, rice vinegar, soy sauce and fish sauce. All of which is then brought up to the boil, and then allowed to boil for about 10 minutes until reduced and "jammy". Lastly the finished jam is poured into sterilised jars.

The finished "jam" carries a bit of warmth from the chillies and ginger, but being balanced out by the sugar is not excessively hot by any stretch of the imagination, and gets a good bit of "zing" from the lime.

Annabel suggests this as making a great dip for vegetable crudites, or tossing chicken pieces in the jam before baking. I think shrimp would be great bathed in this jam before cooking and serving on some rice, and I think a good dollop would also be a wonderful accompaniment to corn fritters (or any other kind of fritter, actually). It also tastes incredibly good just devoured by the spoonful straight from the jar!!

As I didn't make any changes to the recipe whatsoever, I'm not going to post it here, but direct you to Annabel's website where you can find the recipe here.

The Free Range Cook is a great book for busy cooks - simple recipes, with minimal ingredients, and with a strong emphasis on using fresh, seasonal, local produce - now that's my kind of book.

I am sharing this Chilli Jam at Cookbook Sundays, where my friends are delving into their cookbooks and sharing their recipes. Hope you'll stop by and see what they've been cooking this week - maybe you'll even feel inspired to link up a recipe from one of your own cookbooks.

Lovely post Sue! I love the free range cook - I actually tried making this last year, but it was early in my jam-making career and I didn't reduce it enough so I have a kind of sweet chilli sauce which is performing well as a dip :) Will have to re-try it as a jam again!

The Free Range Cook is a really useful book to have in your collection isn't it.

Mine doesn't have a really firm "jam set" either - more of a soft "conserve set" - which does make it perfect for dipping. And in fact that is really how Annabel recommends it be used, so I think yours was probably fine.

I actually used some the other night to make Chilli Lime Mussels - post to come.

I love this! My grandpa used to make hot pepper jelly, which I loved. Thank you for linking your jam this week--I'm happy to be introduced to it. Sorry I missed Cookbook Sundays. The week got away from me in a bad way. I'm sad I missed the last one.

About Me

My name is Sue. I am a passionate food lover and enthusiastic cook. I also teach yoga and maintain a daily yoga practice ... a practice which has led to a growing awareness of the need to live and eat more mindfully and consciously. I am by no means a strict vegetarian, but I do consume a "mainly vegetarian" diet and I make an effort to exercise ethically responsible food choices as much as possible. I therefore whenever possible seek out products which are free range, organic, seasonal and locally produced. I try to make most things from scratch, and to keep meals as uncomplicated as possible. Because I often teach classes in the evenings, it's important to me to be able to prepare a delicious meal quickly, from a few simple, good quality ingredients.